So, WB/ DC Entertainment released a new trailer for the upcoming Green Lantern movie.
I am not going to be gutsy enough to say "The Green Lantern isn't a superhero", because that's not really true. I spent an hour today reading a reprint of Green Lantern comics where a PACK of GL's were stopping a simple bank robbery in flashy costumes using powers.
But what I would say is that the definition of "superhero" in movie review terms has recently cycled back around to becoming immediately dismissive, and that in showing the beginnings of these character's stories in a movie, reviewers are (falsely, if you ask me) insisting that it's all the same story. Now, I'd be a pretty ridiculous blogger if I suggested that the screenplays aren't finding ways to distill those stories down to certain beats or a formula, but... isn't that just true by the nature of the beast when it comes to movie-making for big-budget pictures? But I can see how reviewers with no dog in the fight are getting a bit worn out by all-origins, all-the-time with comic characters getting translated to the big screen.
Anyhow, what I do like is that WB/ DCE is savvy enough to see a need to explain to audiences prior to the GL's release that this will be more of a space-action movie with some action occurring on Earth, or at least find a new way to spin GL and how this movie is going to be different from Thor, Captain America and what else they've seen before (and how, honestly, GL fits into the pantheon of comic based characters).
I know the "recruit into a cosmic space-force" is what I find interesting about the Green Lantern on first blush*, and I think its a good call to make it crystal clear that, hey... this is sort of a space-opera. Especially as I suspect by a third movie, we'll be going full-on Sinestro Corps War.
*enough so that I didn't find GL particularly compelling when DC decided to get RID of the Corps back in the 1980's and totally eliminate
Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
I own one GL comic. It was bought for me in a Marvel Grab Bag by my parents along with Thor and a comic about Stunt Bikes.
ReplyDeleteI'm still excited to see the movie.
In a lot of ways, this looks like the first "accurate to the comics" adaptation they've done since the first season of Wonder Woman. Its kind of exciting.
ReplyDeleteBut I'd like a movie about Stunt Bikes, too.
Well each successive trailer I see for this movie make me like it even more. The original jokey trailer still has me a bit worried.
ReplyDeleteI never collected any GL books until it went GL Corps. To me that was a much more interesting concept.